School MATRIX® Special Education
Manages Special Education Processes in the Context of the General Education Program
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The IDEA amendments of 1997, PL 105-17, focus on improving teaching and learning through use of the IEP as a primary tool for enhancing children's involvement and progress in the general curriculum.
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These updated requirements mean that IEPs that are disconnected from the regular instructional program are less likely to be acceptable, and imply that a different approach to IEP development is needed. No longer should IEPs be developed from a set of generic goal statements that purport to relate only to special populations.
To insure integration of the general curriculum into this planning process, School MATRIX® Special Education provides educators on-line access to the general curriculum and management of the IEP in tandem with all District lesson plans. Using this process, a data trail can be built and is readily available for quick access should issues of accountability or questions of liability arise. Most other computerized IEP systems use a set of standards and objectives that are not necessarily connected with the standards and curriculum that the district has adopted for its students. This practice is becoming less and less acceptable and does not make sense if the goals and objectives set by the district are designed for all students. School MATRIX® Special Education does not have this weakness because it is completely integrated with every other component of the district's general instructional program.
School MATRIX® Special Education can further be differentiated from other systems of the same genre through its use of a process-based rather than forms-based approach to the management of special services information. The value inherent within use of an intuitive process, is two-fold - (1) the data entry process is simpler as it has logic and (2) the information being collected has greater meaning as it can be viewed in the context of the complete planning process. Forms are inventoried and engineered based on actual procedures and processes that are followed. In many cases, the number of forms used in the process can be significantly reduced. Forms tied to processes are displayed on-line so users can select and complete the ones that are appropriate for each IEP. School MATRIX® Special Education makes it easy to determine whether or not all required forms have been completed for any particular student.
Provides for Assessment (Diagnostic and Placement)
On-Line Assessment Battery. School MATRIX® Special Education is also designed to manage locally developed diagnostic, placement and publisher produced assessments and integrate those assessments with the on-line IEP processes. This means assessment results can be reviewed while users are developing, reviewing, and analyzing IEPs. It also means students' assessment results can be included in the IEP deliberations automatically. With School MATRIX® Special Education, performance results from state and national norm- and criteria-referenced examinations can be included on students' IEPs. School MATRIX® Special Education also makes results from those tests available during the diagnostic and planning processes. And, to help complete the picture that depicts the "present level of performance" on each student, users can review assessments developed in the student's general education classes and include them where appropriate. Using School MATRIX® Special Education, educators can use any standard Web browser to enter and update student responses or results obtained by observing student performance. And, teachers can distribute any master assessment on-line to any of the student's teachers, to enable them to complete assessments and evaluations on-line. Alternatively, users can generate hard copies of each document so personnel do not have to be on-line in order to complete the forms.
Tracks the Implementation Process
Another weakness found within other computerized IEP management systems is their inability to track the extent to which the IEP is actually implemented. Again, School MATRIX® Special Education eliminates this weakness by enabling any teacher to consult on-line IEP information as they design lessons and assessments for their special needs children. To facilitate the tracking and analysis of IEP implementation, they can also link any lesson and assessment event to any child's IEP. With this feature, unique to School MATRIX® Special Education, any teacher who works with special needs students (including regular education teachers) can (a) consult recommendations while they are planning and/or assessing instruction and (b) ascertain the extent to which the recommendations included in each child's IEP are actually being implemented. This is required by IDEA and is critical in this era of litigation. In addition, special services educators can work with classroom teachers to create adaptations to specific instructional activities and resources and store these ideas along with the regular curriculum to help general education teachers generate lessons and assessments appropriate for the special needs child regardless of that child's exceptionality.
Offers a Unique Meeting Manager
To keep track of meetings, including their purpose, notes, summary recommendations, attendance, and notifications, School MATRIX® Special Education includes a powerful meeting manager. The meeting manager is available at any step in the process for which meetings or notifications are possible. With the meeting manager, educators can schedule meetings or notifications as appropriate and keep track of the recommendations and attendance. Additionally, notification forms to be associated with any meeting can be selected to make sure that communications are consistent, reliable, and tracked.
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